Unforseen Hurtles
by Rha'Shazad
Summary: Like many, I was displeased with the ending choices for ME3.  Not simply Bioware's willingness to kill off our Shepard's, but some things do not really add up to me.  Going to be FemShepxLiara, GarrusxTali, and maybe some OCness.  be kind!
1. Chapter 1

All the culminated years of struggle, bearing the yoke of knowing the truth, and working so hard to build the foundations for a life with Liara. And now she was reduced to making the hardest choice anyone had to make in all of existance. Peace at the cost of her own life? Everything depended on her dying? This wasn't fair!

So many people had told her, confided in her, that she had done the unthinkable, beaten the invincible and was doing the impossible. So why was it she was reduced to this? This seemingly hopeless chance to break the cycle forever. She wanted so desperately to be selfish, run or crawl back to Liara, run away together. Curl up on a remote beach and world and just forget the Reapers even existed.

But Dahara-kea Shepard could not do that. Her wants paled before duty and responsibility. Brushing strands of ebon hair from her violet eyes, she pushed herself forward, down the path toward the pillar of energy. But each step felt heavier, almost like her feet were in constant contact with the metal floor.

What exactly happened aboard the Crucible is not clear, but the massive structure in conjunction with the Citadel radiated a pulse. An explosion of energy that defied explaination, but still, the effect was easily recognized. Every Reaper, From the massive hulks to their victims-turned-cohorts, fell dead in the pulse's wake.

It also seemed to have another effect, this affecting the relays in the entire galaxy. Geth and Quarian scouts began reporting in that the relays appeared to be malfunctioning. Not outwardly damaged, but evidently suffering software and firmware errors. The geth confirmed this as the hardware of the relays were intact and showed no sign of duress. But energy fluctations seemed to hint at system errors, and with study the relays proved to be attempting to self correct these errors. Until they were mended however, traveling the network was impossible.

"What the hell do you mean there is no sign of her anywhere on the Citadel?"

"Admiral Hackett, please understand we're fighting low staff and the keepers to sift through the bodies and trying to get back into the Citadel's internal security network," one intimidated Alliance officer said in an audio only line to the now seething Admiral.

"Look, she couldn't have gone far from where you found Admiral Anderson," Hackett spat, trying very hard get his outrage under control again. His hands gripped the console as if he were about to rip it free from the bulkhead in front of him. He shook with rage, but not at the officer. Someone far more sinister.

"We have every species combing the Crucible and we're doing our best in the Presidium. We'll contact you when we have an update."

"Very well. Hackett out," the man said, closing the channel and sighing.

It was the assumption that Shepard succeeded in using the long planned superweapon, but then the savior of the galaxy disappearing was going to undo all of that sacrifice and blood. Commander Shepard had touched more lives accross the galaxy. She gained their trust, built alliances and friendships, and rallied every fighter with her example. A beacon of hope to trillions of lives. But if something happened to her, was spirited away for some maligned purpose, the galaxy would be plunged into a unilateral dark age.

Opening another channel, Hackett ordered a gag order for all Alliance personell. Say nothing about Shepard until she is found, dead or alive. He sighed and looked at the terminal. Several long moments passed. He already knew the Normandy was off on the hunt. There was no real way to stop Joker and EDI once they put their minds to something. But until the relays were sorted out, they could not search much beyond Sol.

"We've come too far to let it fall apart now. We put her on the pedastal, now the galaxy she saved is tied to her. Whatever gods watch over us now, keep her safe." The Admiral pushed away from the terminal, turning to head through the door to the bridge of his flagship.

"If she dies, I'll climb to heaven and kill you all. You can't have her yet."


	2. Chapter 2

((Author's Note- This one is a little longer than I planned but its done. I wanted to get it done before work. Hope you all still like it. Also introduce an OC. Don;t hate too much! ))

Shepard was trudging through yet another depression inducing dream. She couldn't see her own hand in front of her face. Well, her dark skin made her hard to see in the shade anyway, but she could hardly see the dim light on the horizon of this dead forest she seemed to keep finding herself. Everything was in slow motion still. But this time there was no child to chase. No voices in the dark. She suddenly felt so painfully alone. She wanted to with Liara.

Was this what awaited her? Was this the reward for her sacrifice? Was there too much blood on her hands despite it all? Eternal darkness while her love lived on with whatever Dahara left her? How was that fair? Regret seized her heart, stopping her in her tracks. Dropping to her knees, her hands clutched at her chest, trying to dig through her hands through the armor and do something for the pain.

She winced at the hurt, closing her eyes and curling up on the ash covered ground. The Commander wanted to cry, but there were no tears. But then her eyes opened, and her heart sunk further. She wasn't in the dark now. Her body ached still, armor melted, scorched and gone. Skin blistered or bloodied, hair caked with more blood and dirt. Focusing her vision, she could see she was in the cramped cabin of a ship.

Things were still fuzzy as she tried to prop herself up, grunting as she looked around. Nothing stood out until her gaze settled on the door. The blur was undeniable. Cerberus.

"Shit!" she muttered, throwing her weight to roll on her side. She noticed her wounds were not bleeding, medi-gel was backed on her side. Evidently the assault on Cronos facility didn't kill the monstocity completely. There were still more of the organization out there, and they seemed to want revenge for foiling their most insidious plan. She had to get out. But she had no guns. No omnitool, and she could not even feel her biotics amp. She could hardly imagine what was planned for her now.

"Damn it... at least let Liara be. Leave her out of this," she begged to no one, real tears beginning to pool at the corners of her tired eyes.

...

"They are attempting a massive active denial attack against our systems. I am holding them off but we need to escape before they find a weakness, Jeff."

"I know, I know! Their frigates are trying to box us in! Not to meantion they're hammering our barriers! Wish we brought Tali along," Joker grumbled. His hands moved almost in a blur as he tried to evade a pair of Cerberus Frigates and a cruiser bringing up the rear. EDI was at his side, busy with the cyberware systems. She was also trying to coordinate repairs with Tali's absence.

"Thanix Cannons are almost ready! But we need to use them now!" Garrus reported through the comms. He was in the forward battery, getting the weapons back on line after a lucky hit damaged a power distribution relay. "They're timing their shots to drain our barriers more! Even our enhanced shields can't handle it," he added as he finished the repairs. He evacuated the forward battery as the cannons came online and dropped out into position.

To Joker's credit, he wasted no time putting their weapons to use. The Normandy was flanked on both sides by the frigates, but they lacked the nimbleness of the Alliance vessel. A brief cut in engine power to all engines, then a little from the port engines to slip behind one frigate. Joker manuveared to sweep the bow behind the ship, EDI firing the main guns to rake the stern of the frigate with a near blinding beam of light. The Thanix beam easily passed through the frigates barriers and liquified the hull plating, causing the drive core to overload and subsequently explode.

"It appears Cerberus did not take advatange of our open systems and make us of our numerous upgrades to the ship. The frigate and cruiser are breaking off pursuit and are retreating to the relay," EDI reported, glancing over to Joker.

He sighed and thought hard for a moment. Joker basically went AWOL when the search teams reported they could not find Shepard on the Citadel or Crucible. He felt bad that Admiral Anderson had to die just at the finish line for this whole mess. They did find DNA trace of Shepard and another human, but they had no leads on the Commander. But then geth patrols shed a little light on the situation.

The group just chasing the Normandy was part of a four ship group, the missing ship had used the relay to escape just after the Charon Relay came back online. Where they went they had no idea. The Normandy made the jump after it, EDI tried to predict where they went but the choices were about a third of the galaxy's destinations. It also turned out the subspace comm network the relays maintained was in chaos. Some relays were evidently still in their so dubbed maintience cycle after the Crucible fired.

"I heard they broke off, where are we going next?"

Joker turned his seat around to look up at Grunt as he came to a halt at the bridge. Grunt was all for anything to help Shepard and everyone was glad for his help. But he was also the most impatient of a crew lost without the Commander.

"We need to get lead on our pursuers before we attempt to access the relay. Further more, we do not know if the rest of the relay network is online yet. Cerberus may have gotten more data from the Reapers than we know," EDI report, trying to offer a sympathetic glance to the krogan before returning to her display.

Grunt grumbled and waved the synthetic off, returning to the back of the CIC and the elevator. Joker spun his chair around and sighed heavily. Maybe a little help from Command would have been a good thing. And now that he wasn't actively navigating, his mind drifted to the Commander. What did these Cerberus splinters have in mind for her. He was surprised Liara wasn't up here, in his ear or harassing him from behind. Maybe she was using her creepy Shadow Broker powers to try and pin point where Cerberus was running.

"Joker?"

"What is it, EDI?"

"I have our next course. Take us to the relay and and make our next jump for the Exodus Cluster."

"Roger that. Let's hope that's where they took the Commander."

...

62 hours after the event confirmed as the Crucible firing, Charon Relay came back online, all readings normal. Simultainiously many other relays came online, while others were unreachable still. The geth had been studying this situation and decided that several relays would be affected differently. Fortunetly, there was no data suggesting that any of the relays would not come back online. The geth also had a little insight as to what happened to the Commander.

Admiral Hackett was pulling in every intelligence resource he could on this. Members of the Crucible team, quarians, geth, and especially Miranda Lawson. When she heard Shepard was missing, she volenteered immediately. Surviving C-Sec officers were cleaning up and combing through security sensor data. He had called a meeting to discuss the current findings and hopefully a plan of action. People were already asking questions. Even Tali'Zorah wanted to know where the Normandy was. This was going to snowball out of control in a hurry.

...

4 hours after Charon Relay came online, Admiral Hackett was prepared for a meeting of the minds. Miranda was present already, carrying several datapads of varying size. Tali'Zorah was also present, with a few geth as well. Wrex was being escourted in, at suggestion of Tali to keep him from barging in. There was also a pair of C-Sec officers that had fished out security footage they needed to show the admiral. Even after the Battle for the Citadel, it struck the old human as odd to see human C-Sec officers.

Files showed he had served a single tour in the Alliance military before going to work for C-Sec. From observation, he had a prosthetic left arm, which was very odd in this day and age. He was of average height with lightly tanned skin and stark blue eyes. The picture of a Scandinavian, down to a stern, aggressive demeanor and tall build. He was flanked by a turian who seemed to be coordinating something on a private comm, sounding aggitated as he ended the call at the Admiral's table.

Motioning them all to gather around, Admiral Hackett wanted to get things rolling.

"We'll skip the introductions and get right to it. Shepard is missing, most of us have met her, know her. The whole galaxy has felt her hand upon it, and without her, this war is not going to mean anything," Hackett sternly said, looking around the table. The C-Sec officers slid a datapad over to the admiral, the turian using his omnitool to activate a holo display to let all see the footage.

"The timestamp has not be solidly verified, but after Anderson and Shepard are transported aboard the Citadel, they were intercepted by the Illusive Man," the turian said, watching the damaged recording play.

"Oh my god, look at him," Miranda said, leaning over the table to see the Illusive Man's face. "He's been indoctrinated. His face is half Reaper cybernetics."

"The audio channels are still being pieced together, evidently Reaper code harshly takes control of the CItadel's systems. We'll get the audio ASAP," the human officer said. "But, that may not be the most important part. Keep watching."

The recording continued to play. The Illusive man walked a circle around Shepard and Anderson. He seemed to suddenly possess biotics, and made Shepard's pistol discharge, wounding the Admiral. The whole room shifted their weight uncomfortably, watching without a word. Shepard and Illusive Man argued, and all of the sudden, the leader of Cerberus put a gun to his head and killed himself.

Afterward, Shepard and Anderson collapse in the center of the platform. There Anderson appearently passed, and Shepard crawls to a console. She collapsed, and a small lift in the floor lifts her away.

"SO where did she go?" Tali asks, wringing her hands pensively.

"We couldn't clear shots of the interior of the Crucible. What we did see is what brought us here," the human C-Sec officer. "About ten minutes after that lift takes off, three frigates and a cruiser breach the Citadel's perimeter. They spend five minutes searching, we assume for Shepard and their boss. They find Illusive man first, completely ignored Anderson, and we assume find Shepard about 4 minutes after that. Then they haul their coward asses out of the area."

After the officers pull down their video, a geth prime steps forward, uploading his own footage. It was a map of the solar system, all the way out to the mass relay.

"After the Crucible fires, a pulse transmits from the Citadel through the entire system. It coaleces within the relay where it is transmited out to the rest of the network. Our inital findings showed this pulse was a command code that causes catastrophic failure in Reaper runtimes. It only briefly affects the relays, but from our data, not all relays are operational yet. Some are still conducting maintence cycles. While the relay was down geth and creator patrols detected the same group of ships moving toward the relay. They then hid within the ring system of your planet Saturn. We attempted to track them but they were well hidden. Four hours ago the relay came online, and the Normandy came to assist in apprehending the ships. They did not explain their assitance, only that they were there for the ships. One frigate made a run for the relay, and the Normandy pursued, and the geth followed. The remaining ships also came from hiding and followed through the relay. He remained as we did not know where the relay sent them."

The room was silent for a moment before Miranda cleared her throat.

"Looking at the geth's data, I confirmed our abductors. They're Cerberus. When the Normandy assaulted Cronos station EDI transmitted some intel to me to see what would remain of Cerberus after the attack. The best I can do narrow it down to a small handful of systems. If the geth and quarians can finish their study on the relay downtimes we might have better luck. I think our best chances near the Attican Traverse. The Terminus will be too dangerous for Cerberus to hide in. Our problem will be a strikeforce to go get her. Any remaining facility will likely be as fortified as it can get."

Tali paced away from the table, Wrex grumbled and growled under his breath. He evidently knew he wasn't storming a Cerberus base on his own. Admiral Hackett lowered his head. All the implications, were weighing him down. Was their luck finally running out.

"Admiral," the human C-Sec officer said, "I can take a strike force to go get Shepard and the Normandy. We have a team sifting through the Citadel's codes now that they have been laid bare. We might be able to track down those ships. And I think the STG owes us some favors. I think Wrex and I can get it done with some geth. If that's okay with all of you," he asked.

Hackett narrowed his gaze at the young man, but Wrex spoke what most of them were thinking.

"You got some quads saying stuff like that, human. Why the hell should we let you do this for us. We don't even know you can be trusted. I certianly don't want you around to help save my honorary krogan."

This was evidently enough to pissed the human off, as the turian clamped a hand on his shoulder. He shook the turian off and pushed the geth out of the way as he got right in the krogan warlord's ugly face.

"I'm Hyrawl, C-Sec SWAT. I've spent enough time killing krogan mercs, Blue Sun and Cerberus to know what I'm doing. Besides, I think my biotics are enough to do the job. Besides, we need a crew to go find the Normandy too."

The krogan glowered at the man, then snorted and slapped the man's shoulder.

"We might have use for you. Just try to keep pace," Wrex said as he laughed and walked out of the conferance room.

"I have work cut out for me, Admirals," Miranda said after shaking her head at the show of testosterone. "If the geth and quarians can coordinate data with me, we might be able to get solid data on where Shepard is."

Admiral Hackett knew this was their best chance. Time was definetely an enemy here.

"Do what you need to. And since you help bring Shepard back to life, we may need you experiance to help repair whatever damage they end up doing to her. We'll make sure you have anything you need, just in case. As for our gung-ho C-Sec friends, start rounding up anything and everything you need. The galaxy needs Shepard, and you can't afford to fail in this one. I hope you are up to it, Officer Hyrawl," Hackett said, looking over the table at the younger man.

"You'll get Shepard back. On the Normandy hopefully. The galaxy will have it's savior," Hyrawl said. "I just have to cash in some favors. Maybe after this is done I'll see about visiting Earth."

The C-Sec officers salute and then leave, followed by the geth and Ms. Lawson.

"Admiral Hackett, the Migrant Fleet will offer all assistance we can. I've recieved word that the Normandy departed without orders, and had most of the crew aboard," Tali said, her voice filled with heavy emotion, even over the suit's vocal transmitter.

"You want to go with them," Hackett said, crossing his arms over his chest as Tali nodded, bashfully it seemed. "It's more than Commander Shepard, isn't it?"

"Garrus... Garrus Vakarian was picked up along with Urdnot Grunt. I wasn't told until I recieved an encrypted data burst from EDI. They left in a hurry, I was so busy in London..."

A moment passed, and Hackett knew what was wrong. He clasped his hands behind his back and stood tall. "Admiral Tali'Zorah, I understand you want to go on the rescue mission. If your Admiralty Board approves, you'll go with my blessing. You'd better get going, Wrex and our C-Sec friends look like their going to be ready faster than the rest of us."


	3. Chapter 3

((A/N: Urg, work is so uninspiring. This chapter might be kinda bleh, but there will be action and reunions and stuff next time. I promise.))

To organize anything just a few days after a full scale galactic war was short of miraculous on its own. The new impromptu rescue squad had to nearly fight to get anything they needed. Except for the geth. Having a fleet that rivaled the turians' own was a bonus, and geth ships were faster and tougher in a fight. They would be great assets in this mission, and all geth were on board with the plan.

Shepard perhaps had the greatest impact upon the geth than any others. With her help in staying the hand of the quarian fleets, geth became individuals, now capable of a synthetic evolution beyond what the quarians orginally ordained three centuries prior. Any geth asked would easily volenteer. They all wanted to express their gratitude for what the human did for them all and all synthetics. Not to mention the geth were not exactly happy to have to fight their own creators. The geth would gladly honor the peace between the quarians and themselves.

For the mission the Geth Concensus pledged a small fleet. Two large cruisers, ten frigates and a wing of 6 fighter craft. And full complement of geth on each one, plus a geth prime and three hunters for the ground mission. It wouldn't make Wrex any less nervous knowing they were along for the ride. But if they helped him kill Cerberus for hurting Shepard in any way, he was okay with it. That or some other salarians. Mordin was the only one with his hide, the rest were worthless schemers the krogan couldn't be bothered with.

Wrex for his part was trying to keep his krogan from starting any fights on Earth while they were there. The relays were still not all online or whatever it was the geth had said. Enough that the krogan could not leave for Tuchanka just yet. Although, despite all of this, despite how the old warlord had lived up til now, he just wanted to go home. Krogan had earned a peaceful life now, it'd be nice to sleep without worrying about someone trying to kill you in your sleep.

Helping the C-Sec officers dig through endless cargo bays amid the mess the Reapers made on the Citadel, Wrex finally had to ask what they were looking for. Again.

"What the hell are we looking for? Wasn't very important when the Reapers kicked down the door and threw you off the Citadel," Wrex said, knowing he had to be wearing the human and turian's nerves raw by now.

"We confinscated it from a STG worm. He conned an asari scientist in helping him develope it. Nothing benign about it," the turian grumbled.

"It's a salarian we're talking about, Tarkus," the human, Hyrawl said, both hands in pockets as they walked down an empty corridor. "Wrex knows. Most of them are up to something."

"Well, they can't be all bad now. One did just cure the genophage for us."

Hyrawl looked back at the krogan with a skeptical glance. "One doesn't redeem the lot."

"True."

...

Hours later the trio finally found what they were looking for. It was in one of the Ward station houses. They couldn't tell which Ward it was, the carnage and damage was so extensive. But it was heartening to a degree that the keepers were cleaning up the mess. The crew tagged a large cargo container for pick up in a turian frigate that was also assigned to the mission. It was by sheer luck the asari scientist was evacuated from the Citadel to Earth when the massive station was moved.

The scientist, a biotics specialist by the name of Yasea Renthe, was in the middle of helping set up another field hospital in a refuge center. She was lost on Earth, lost even more in Paris. Humans here spoke with a thick accent, or in a language they insisted was the language of love. Being just under 500 years old may have made her a little cynical, but now her temper was so short people were just giving her a very wide berth.

She was especially displeased when the men who shut down her legitimate research showed up to ask her for her help. And an appearent krogan flunky made her a little less willing to be any help to them.

"Please ma'am, Hyrawl is trying to get a team together to go rescue Commander SHepard," Tarkus tried to appeal to the asari's better nature.

"Well then he and you and who ever the hell else can figure it out yourselves then," Yasea spat, using a biotic field to finish setting up the corner of a tent. Hyrawl was already losing his patience, and Wrex was just chuckling at him. They needed to get her back to the fleet's rally point.

"Look, Dr. Renthe, I know we were not as delicate as we should have been when we, ahem, interrupted your research, but now we need your help. Not us personally, hell Wrex probably doesn't know how to ask. But Commander Shepard needs us. Nothing she has accomplished will matter if we let a bunch of fucking cowards murder her in secret. If she dies, so does any hope in the galaxy," Hyrawl said, then stepped toward her then gestured to the ruined buildings behind them and the refugees huddling around the camp. "She gave every person here and everywhere else the galaxy hope. If they lose that light, the Reapers might as well have won."

Yasea looked at him for a long moment. Her royal blue skin was smugged with ash, but piercing eyes seemed to be dissecting him as she thought. She walked in close and looked him dead in the eye, and Hyrawl didn't budge. She still couldn't intimidate this one.

"Alright, I'll help. I just want to figure out why humans are willing to throw perfectly good lives away."

The turian and krogan were already trudging their way back to the borrowed shuttle. Hyrawl spared the asari a grin. "Its what we do. When all we have is our bones and our blood, we'll trade it for victory. I just hope Shepard doesn't make that transaction."

...

It seemed like it was all an elaborate plan, like the Illusive Man himself had it all figured out. EDI just could not see that far into the plan. Or it was simply that the remaining Cerberus members had their bases covered. When the Normandy exited the relay, it was already surrounded. Not only that, Cerberus was jamming all communications. Evasive manuveurs was an only option, that, and by now Cerberus ships were wise enough to not linger in front of the bow of the Normandy.

The chase wasn't very long, the Normandy forced to land on a moon of a large jovian planet. It had an abandoned docking facility that allowed Cerberus the oppertunity to board the ship. Rather than destroy it, or kill the crew, they were all taken hostage and the ship locked down. The only thing they missed, was EDI. The synthetic body was placed in the AI core, staged to look inactive. EDI also allowed the Cerberus troops to try and lock out her access to the ship's systems. All she had to do was wait until they were all off the Normandy.

The hardest part was cutting through the interferance Cerberus was creating. EDI was tracking the ships, but could not signal until they were out of range or risk retaliation. She offhandedly hoped they would leave Eden Prime alone, and was satisfied Cerberus promptly left the utopia system. Luckily, some of the ships had poor encryption in their comm systems, and learned where they were going.

...

"Open a comm channel to C-Sec Officer Hyrawl," Admiral Hackett ordered one of the officers on the bridge of his ship. The call was placed, and a few moments later the channel was opened.

"Hyrawl here, what do you need, Admiral? We're packing up what we can here, we'll be ready once Ms. Lawson cares to grace us with her presense."

Hackett could not help but wish this motivated individual had stayed in the Alliance, he was certianly used to getting things done.

"Not so fast son. I have two things before you can head out. EDI, the Normandy's shipboard AI has contacted us. The crew was taken as hostages and they tried to lock the Normandy up on a moon orbiting Zion in the Utopia System."

"Really? Must have surprised them then. I thought there was a detachment of an Alliance fleet sitting on that system."

Hackett rubbed his forehead and nodded. It was a little embaressing but it was as it was.

"EDI can bring the ship back but I would rather you rendevous with her and transfer a skeleton crew over, and take the Normandy with you. She might have information for you. I don;t want to risk her leaking information to our enemies over these channels."

Hyrawl was quiet for a moment, in which Hackett hoped the channel was compromised. Now would be the wrong time for a breach like that.

"What's the other thing?"

"I'm going with you, that's non-negotiable. I babysat the Crucible and dropped the ball at the critical moment. I may be an old warbird but I will make it up to get Shepard out of Cerberus' hands."

((A/N: If people are still following, then you're in luck! Next chapter will has much action, an OC will be hurt, and Wrex! Yay Wrex!))


	4. Chapter 4

As with all things of late, time was a very critical commodity in very short supply. The taskforce was currently in high orbit over Zion, hiding in the planet's magnetic field. The Normandy now joined the group, taking on an emergency crew that needed to be trained while preparing to go on what many assumed would be a wild goose chase. Admiral Hackett stood at the Galaxy map in the CIC, an air of anger warding off any that might be bold enough to approach.

The C-Sec officers- Hyrawl Skarsgaard and Tarkus D'saad- were aboard with the asari scientist Yasea Renthe. They brought along a massive cargo container, medical equipment, medical grade nanites, a resevoir of omnigel and medigel, and several geth to help. What they were working wasn't clear to the Admiral, some sort of armor designed for a biotic shock trooper. At this point, Hackett would take anything he could get. Which was partly why Wrex was along. He knew Shepard helped the krogan overcome the the genophage, but the grateful krogan were still as violent and ready to fight as ever. Hopefully that got put to good use.

As for the rest of the taskforce, it was sitting idle. There was no telling what had happened to Shepard by now. EDI and Miranda were hard at work combing through thousands of encrypted transmissions to pinpoint where Cerberus was hiding. On top of all of that, Hackett wasn't here to supervise. He was here to fight. But like everyone else, he needed direction.

...

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Yasea watched the human Hyrawl, unsure of everything at this point. What he was planning to go through with would in all likelihood kill him. Now or when the mission was completed. What they had finished building and preparing was a large powered armor. While not uncommon in this day and age, it was mainly an external biotic amp, capable of far more than most asari were until they reached their matriarch years.

"Yeah, I'm the only other biotic here that doesn't have any other duty. Nothing to go back to either, really. I don't even know if C-Sec exists anymore," Hyrawl said, almost distant as he looked at the machine he was about to test. It was certianly intimidating looking, it's body reminded him of a geth prime. Transmitters and sensor equipment in the blade extensions reaching up from the shoulders. Covered in moving plated armor, it even had an articulate face. Mandibles like a turian, with sharp angled 'teeth'. It was further modified with a new left arm, as his own prothsesis would not work within it.

What was making Yasea doubtful of the whole thing was the black spikes sticking out of it's chest, back, sides, shoulders and thighs. They were composed of nanites, and they were going to be injected into the human's body. Ideally, this process would be gradual, well in advance of testing the suit itself. But with time against them, they had to gamble on chance. Essentially, conduits had to be woven into his entire body to allow the various VIs in the suit to monitor and maintain his body in combat.

It would also allow him to better interface witht he suit to allow it to amplify his biotics. But the pain involved with aggressive nanite infestation would drive even an asari justicar insane, if not kill them outright. How could he hope to survive this? WHy was this human doing this? Yasea had to know. She stepped in front of him, standing almost intimately close, hands gripping his arms to get his attention.

"But why? With the krogan and the geth alone this could be pulled off! How is killing yourself going to improve the chances of success?"

Looking into the asari's troubled eyes, he forgot for a moment she hardly knew him at all. Much of his life, he was keenly focused on the asari as a species, then he found he was quite fond of them, hoping one could have a life with him. But most were so restless, not ready to settle down within a human lifetime. Maybe he had given up a little hope in the end.

"Because I am not as capable as Shepard. She's done things I cannot. I'm not that flexable. I've lived long enough to see what I am good for, and in the days to come, I'm not going to be that useful. SO why linger and remind everyone else of what was?"

"So you're a coward then?"

That evoked a strong reaction. It cut deep and the asari thought for a moment he might lash out at her. But he managed to keep control and looked away from her. "It isn't fear." Yasea wasn't satisfied, reaching up to turn his chin to face her. "Then what is it?"

"I guess it's genetic. My bloodline hails from a cold, unforgiving place on Earth. The gods there were powerful, but only fate could topple them. The gods knew the hour of their end, but they fought against it anyway. I am a human, my life is so short compared to yours. You can live to see the galaxy flourish again. I won't be that lucky. At least I would be remembered trading my life for that of the great Commander Shepard."

"So is it glory? What? I thought humans were good at doing what couldn't be done? That possiblities and probablitites were just a minor inconvieniance!"

The hanger fell silent after that. Yasea was almost shaking. Hyrawl looked a little troubled, like he was beginning to doubt himself. "What would you have me do, then? We don't even know if she still lives. Cerberus still has to be dealt with. It's not the best solution. Not the safest, or cost effective, or most subtle. Maybe this will all work out, or we all die. The ideal situation sare few and for between for humans. So we go with being bold occasionally. It doesn't always work out, but like Shepard has proven- it works when it needs to."

...

"What's the status down here?"

A question asked more times than any of them would have liked. Yasea, a geth, and Tarkus were all completing last minute checks before Hyrawl probably ruined his existance. Admiral Hackett was getting impatient and Wrex was wanting to kill something. EDI and Miranda had identifed a hidden outpost on Terra Nova that Cerberus was at least holding some of the Normandy's crew. He wanted to know if Hyrawl would be joining them.

"We'll be ready to start in a minute or two. What we're about to do might kill him, but if it works, he'll be able to get you Shepard." Yasea would not look away from her console, making last minute revisions in sections of code. Hackett walked to the container, looking through the containment field to see Hyrawl just before he closed up the suit and donned the helmet.

"I hear it'll hurt like hell. Any chance you'd reconcider this? Can't use you if you're dead," Hackett said, eyeing the menacing armature's face.

"No time to back out now. At least if it all goes south, you'll all know these things are a bad idea," Hyrawl quipped, stepping into a set of very strong restraints.

"Will those hold him?" Tarkus asked, mainly to the geth that fabricated the containment pod.

"Unknown at this time. Even with the biotic amplifier offline, the stress may induce an upturn in his biotic power."

"Alright, we better do this. If he dies, I assisted in his suicide. If not, I might have crippled him," Yasea said, sounding a little indifferent to the man risking his life. Tarkus muttered something the asari could hear but Hackett couldn't, then gestured everyone back away from the container.

With little ceremony and no time for any last words, the doctor pressed a light on her display, and for a moment nothing appeared to happen. But then, with little warning at all, the armature began twitching. He jerked a little, grunting and growling a little, then when the spikes of nanites jabbed into the body two inches deep. The body arched, and Hyrawl threw back his head and howled. He made no effort to hide his pain, screaming as he felt the sparp spikes drive deeper into his body then branch out in slithering, agonizing slivers.

Tarkus could not watch, he looked away as a fellow officer writhed in pain. Hackett watched, his composure faltering some, in awe that a man was willing to go through this. Yasea watched, silent and trembling as unbidden tears streaked down her cheeks. Half of the nanites had been injected and Hyrawl felt as if it had been going on for hours. He was close to passing out, almost concidering death preferable to this.

But he remembered he couldn't fail. It was his turn to shoulder the hope of an entire galaxy; if only breifly. He had to be strong. Stronger than Cerberus. Stronger than pain. Hackett blinked as the howling changed. A slight inflection of... anger. Howling became deep growling, the voice becoming more synthetic. Soon his growling and roaring sounded like machinery, hissing and bellowing. The nanites' work was nearly done, but now Hyrawl's spasming tore him free of the restraints.

Before he could lunge blindly for the containment field, a shutter slammed down in his way. Pounding both fists into the metal composite and then bashes his head into it. The suit's construction was impressive to say the least, completely unmarred as Hyrawl's adrenaline pumped through all vessels in his body. And all of the sudden, quiet. Heavy breathing could be heard in the container, and then a crash as the human inside collapsed. No one moved for a moment, then the geth advanced silently.

Waving an omnitool over the shutter it slowly retracted, pieces falling to the floor and Hyrawl flopped onto the floor. The geth ran a diagnostic before turning to look up at Yasea and Admiral Hackett. "Proceedure completed. Given rest, he will be ready for duty in 3 hours." The asari then began checking him with her own omnitool. The console nearby lit up with information. The process was hard on him, it did nearly kill him. But he was alive and just needed rest.

...

While Hyrawl recovered, Wrex and the geth would attack the outpost on Terra Nova. The turian ship was escourted by three of the geth frigates. Wrex and the geth would land in shuttles while the turians in orbit jammed all communications. In the dead of night, the shuttles circled the post, dropping Wrex and the geth at the base entrance. Gun platforms on each shuttle would provide cover.

Once on the ground, Cerberus troops trickled out into cover, holding their fire for the moment. They could not cover each attacker, but all they needed was to protect the entrance. One Centurian stepped forward, confident as 30 yards seperated Wrex and himself.

"And what do you want?"

"To fucking kill you!" the krogan shouts, zipping the centurian with a volley from his assault rifle. To say Wrex was waiting to do this was a grave understatement. He threw down his rifle and pulled his trusted shotgun from behind his back, rushing forward with the geth prime hot on his heels. Finishing off the centurian with a single blast of his shotgun, Wrex threw himself into the Cerberus front line, smashing the armored thugs with relative ease. It was like they had all been weakened.

The geth reformed once outside resistance was crushed. Wrex had taken minimal injury and without pause they pushed inside. They all washed over the Cerberus soldiers like a flood, leaving them dead and trambled underfoot. It wasn't much of an outpost, it was just enough to stop over for a short stay. Inside they found a majority of the Normandy's crew. Among them was Grunt, James Vega, and Specialist Traynor. They were in relative good health, just a few scratches or bruises.

"Where's the rest of the crew? Where's Shepard?" Wrex asked Traynor, who was still in shock over the ordeal. When she couldn't answer, the krogan found his tank grown subordinate. "Gone," Grunt said after walking outside with Wrex as the crew was loaded onto the shuttles to begin heading back to the taskforce. "They took Garrus, Joker, that Alliance reporter, the Prothean, Kaiden, Liara and the engineers. They took them to where ever they are holding Shepard. They were talking about killing them in front of her. How the hell can they do that, Wrex?"

The warlord paced away for a moment. A geth appraoched him to report that all OSDs and computer cores were secured and information was being sent to the Normandy to track down Shepard. Waving the geth off, Wrex turned back to Grunt. "Whatever they're doing, we stop them. The anchestors would rise up from the dust if we let them do any more to her. We can't execute anyone just to torment her. She's carried that enough."

Grunt nodded and grinned a little.

"We kill them all."

...

"Admiral, we are ready," EDI informed Hackett as he stood at the galaxy map.

"How much of the crew is ready for this next leg? We are short on time."

EDI was silent for a moment, performing the inqueries needed before reporting back. "Grunt is ready for duty, James will provide support from the shuttles, he sustained a back strain in the struggle when the Normandy was boarded. The remaining crew are at their stations."

"Have you and Miranda found where Shepard is? She doesn't have time for us to survey two or three systems!" Hackett practically roared.

"We have an exact fix on the remaining Cerberus fortification. They are on Therum, through the Artemis Tau Relay. Near the northern polar region. I have the course laid in and have informed the taskforce of our new heading."


	5. Chapter 5

Time gets funny when one is confined to a cell. Garrus being shot in the leg and barely given medigel for it wasn't making it much better. On top of all of that, he was sharing a cell with Joker. The pilot wasn't a bad guy, they got along well enough. But he just talked so much. Not just inane chatter, but he would go into long, overly sarcastic tangents that the turian had trouble following. He tried to give the benefit of appearing to listen, but it was more likely that Joker just needed to vent.

It was also appearent he was concerned about EDI. Now Garrus didn't have the full picture, but it sounded like Shepard had been pushing EDI and Joker into being a sort of a couple. He couldn't quite imagine trying to do or say anything intimate with a synthetic, but EDI made it a policy to surprise them all from time to time. Garrus was more worried about Tali. He couldn't be certian how exactly it happened, but he and Tali had suddenly found themselves becoming very close and cozy.

It could be analyzed any number of ways. They were both dextro- based beings, in fact the only two on the Normandy at any given time. And maybe they had an affection for each other that had slowly built up over the three short years they had known each other. Sure, at first they had some differences, but they also had shared many things. They also had Shepard heavily influance them both, changing both for the better. While Garrus wasn't an Admiral or anything big like that, he wasn't a ruthless vigilante filled with regret either. Just regretted fewer things is all.

They had each other's backs, were a comfort to one another. Hell, right now, he wasn't worried so much about Shepard- she'd bust them out in a few minutes then they could all laugh it off in the med bay or preferably in the lounge. Right now, he was thinking about Rannoch. Tali had already picked a few nice places to build a house. Maybe he could learn how to hold a hammer and help her build it. Maybe a beach house too, if they were feeling especially restless.

...

Shepard for her part was dreaming of the beach. A sunny sky over what might be a Caribbean beach. Liara was there, in a stunning two piece bikini that was leaving little to the imagination. The human moved to join her lover by the water when the dream abruptly ended. The human let loose a blood curddling scream of pain as she was shocked back into consciousness. Strapped to an interrogation chair, wounds somewhat treated to keep her alive to be tortured.

She still had no idea what they stood to gain from this. The Reapers were defeated, Cerberus had been thoroughly whipped, and the Illusive Man was dead. Like Saren, she even convinced him to kill himself. Sadly, it meant he wasn't the villian inside he was twisted into. Just another victim in it all. Tired violet eyes surveyed what her limited field of vision would allow, unable to focus on anything. She heard grumbling, but could not make out the words. What was it they had planned?

'Just leave the Normandy out of this... leave Liara alone. She deserves to be free of all the pain I've caused her at least.'

In a twist of cruelty, a door behind the Commander opened, and two struggling people were forced inside. They didn't have to say anything for her to know who it was. Her skin paled, tensing up in the restraints. Brought before her was two people she thought were still on Earth: Major Kaiden Alenko, and Dr. Liara T'Soni.

Shepard couldn't recall how long she had been in this chair, let lone her second time in Cerberus custody, but she tried to focus to hear what one of the troopers was saying, but her bloodshot eyes widened. Still blurry, she saw a Hornet put to Kaiden's head.

...

Solumn silence. Despite the hum and the occasional turbulance felt by the shuttles, no one felt like breaking the silence. Even Wrex was in what seemed like a contemplative silence. Everyone had their reasons for coming along, even if they did not know SHepard like a few did, they had to do it. If the war with the Reapers was not a big enough obstacle to overcome, then this was the defining moment of their lives.

I helped save the savior of the galaxy.

But no one thought that right now. It wasn't about pride. It was more like returning one of many, uncounted favors the collective galaxy owed to Commander Shepard. They had a plan, one that would work. They had the troops: Wrex and Grunt, several turians including Hyrawl's partner Tarkus, the unnamed geth prime, geth hunters and other troop platforms to assist. James was on a turret in a shuttle providing cover fire when it came time to extract the infiltration teams and the hostages. Admiral Hackett had traded his uniform for armor, an appropriated Mattock rifle in hand.

Many seemed against the Admiral's personal assistance in this mission, but he plainly state rank was no longer important. Shepard was the important thing in the whole equation. The shuttles set down several kilometers from the base, well out of sight. The Normandy was providing overwatch from orbit as a particularly nasty storm was moving into the area. Ground based sensor were going to be useless, the storm could even interfer with an installations internal security and poweer network. Which was playing well for the infiltration team.

...

Well ahead of the remaining ground strikeforce, an infiltration team composed entirely of geth and Hyrawl silently picked their way through unforgiving terrain toward a horrible looking prefabricated structure and surrounding fortifications. The geth were nice enough to loan the human one of their steath units, allowing all of them to creep in on the structure. Most of the guards were inside already, only a few left now.

One trooper had scaled the roof of the building and was flooding the external sensors with artifacted data, coinciding with increased intensity of the coming storm. In a moment, outside comms were cut off. Security was hacked and the bulk of the infiltration team slipped in via several maintainence access doors. The remaining geth outside took a sniping position with a borrowed Incisor rifle, keeping a close eye on the remaining guards outside. The inside team quickly seperated into two teams. The prime, a hunter and Hyrawl dove deeper into the base through unmonitored access shafts while two geth hacked into the internal networks.

With careful timing, they shut down internal sensors, leading the cause to increased interferance from the storm. Electrical interferance was expected for a hastily assembled base, and Cerberus did not appear to try and repair the systems with any great urgency. All the better for the geth. The larger team moved in to surround the detention area that Garrus, Joker and the other crewmen were held, waiting for the signal.

Hyrawl and the prime split, the geth holding position in a hallway that connected to the large circular room Shepard was in. An observation room with a single soldier observing the torture of COmmander Shepard. A silent shade slipped into the room, crouching like a predator opposite the snickering soldier. The circular room's door opened, and the soldier lowered his weapon his weapon to watch as two people were marched in. Shepard was aggitated now, and the Cerberus soldier laughed.

What a hollow sound, how insulting. Hyrawl shut off his cloaking unit. Now was the time to sum up hs short life in a violent action. His biotic amp came online, mechanical mandibles twitching as he took a runner's stance. Shepard was shouting, and a man was trying to comfort her. A channel was opened by the geth prime, but said nothing. Hyrawl did.

"Attack," came the simple command from the fearsome armature, startling the singluar soldier int he room. The rest of the base was under alert in a moment, and in higher levels a short burst of gunfire. Hyrawl growled like a hateful beast, a blue biotic field wrapping around him. He then lunged, his biotics launching him throw the tempered glass, taking the soldier with him. He was flung like a ragdoll, dead as he hit a bulkhead with great force.

The one holding the gun to Kaiden's head tried to point it at the thing that just crashed through the window, but it spun on it's heel, right arm raised up to bring down. From the outer edge of the forearm a 14 inch hardened blade came down on the soldier's head, cutting through armor easily and killed him easily. The geth prime entered from the door and shot the other troops dead with it's pulse rifle. The room was secured, with the help of the hunter and prime, Shepard, Liara and Kaiden were rushed out of the room.

The upper levels were evacuated, shuttles coming in to pick up the hostages and portions of the infiltration team. A cheer rose as the geth prime came out with Commander Shepard and the last of the hostages. Battered but still alive, the unconscious commander was loaded into the shuttle with James and Hackett. The large cluster of shuttles hung in the air, waiting for the last member of the team to exit the building. The ground side entrance did not open, and one of the shuttles reported movement on the roof.

All shifts ascended to look down upon the roof, doors opening and mounted turrets aiming down onto the roof. Atop the roof Hyrawl stood, right arm blade still out, left arm thrown back to extend a much larger, angled blade as he stared down a singular man.

The Illusive Man.

"This will change nothing," the formerly dead man said, his voice more a mix with a Reaper. Though no one was around to confirm it, it was in fact, worse than anyone could possibly imagined. Harbringer had taken refuge in the indoctrinated body as a last resort, barely surviving the Crucible's assault. But if one still lived, it retained the power of the countless. And one human wasn't going to stop Shepard from dying. "We will restart the cycle. You will stop nothing, you will join us."

"I will not fight," Hyrawl said, seeming to grin through the armature. "But these hands and the blood in them will. You are finished."

The form of the Illusive Man began to twist and distort. Like every indoctrinated being the Reapers took control of, cybernetics seemed to sprout from no where, twisting and growing into a grotesque abomination. James tried to pull the things attention with a burst of turret fire, but a biotic barrier absorbed the fire. Hyrawl waved the shuttle off, flicking on an omnitool. Before he even could type in a single command prompt, Yasea screamed out at the top of her lungs. She knew what he was planning, and if getting him inside the suit didn't kill him, what he was planning would.

The words 'BERSERKER' appeared in vibrant red on his body, followed by a howl as the biotic lost control to what many concidered base instincts. In this case, the urge to kill. The familiar blue biotic field erupted from Hyrawl as he lunged into the Illusive Man's twist body.

...

"Normandy, shuttles have made minimum safe distance," Admiral Hackett said in the transmission once they cleared the storm. EDI sat in Joker's usual seat, odd concidering she was in essence a part of the ship. But she wanted to do it this way, to assure herself. The Normandy was holding geosynchronous orbit over the base, bow facing the planet. Specifically, the dangerous end of the ship that held Garrus' Thanix Cannons.

"Confirmed, Admiral, now beginning firing protocols online," EDI replied, typing and wirelessly powering up the cannons. The mass effect core flared to life, pouring the needed power to cut through the atmosphere and melt down the base and everything around it for several kilometers. For extra measure, she gave the shuttles a few extra seconds to get to safer altitudes before firing. Two piercing beams of energy raced out from the frigate's bow, rushing through and pushing clouds away.

The beams hit the facility roof dead center, initially exploding and then melting and sinking deep into the remainder of the facility. The beam kept going, soon deep fissures spiderwebbing from the point of impact. After almost a minute of fire, the Normandy rights itself, and decends to lower orbit to start taking on shuttles with the rest of the taskforce.


End file.
